Hacking for feline enjoyment

[Dino] is staying true to his goal of hacking one project every week. This time around, he’s working on a toy that will amuse and delight his cats. The project centers around a mouse house that has two holes where mice can stick their heads out. When they do, a little LED lamp illuminates their appearance in hopes to catch the eye of your lazy kitty.

The mechanism that automates this device is quite clever and reminds us of the most useless machine. That is, the armature that holds a mouse on either end actuates a limiting switch in the middle of the box when it moves to expose one of the mice. Each of those mice is attached with a rod, along side a leaf switch that makes the mouse retreat when boinked on the head by the cat.

It only takes [Dino] about six minutes to walk us through the build in the video after the break. What follows is a walk through of the wiring and some playtime with the family pets. Despite the intended purpose, it looks like the dog is much more interested than the cat. Either way, it’s a winner in our book.

Very nicely done, Dino. I like that you did this entirely electromechanically: my own design aesthetic is frequently marred by an inability to find the simple solution hiding inside the complex one.

I also think that you’ve discovered a universal of feature of cats: the more money (or time) you spend on a cat toy, the less likely they are to pay any attention. I’ve probably got $50 worth of cat toys scattered around, but the only one that Scrappy likes to play with is an orange shoe lace.